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Youngstown Academic Distress panel to meet today, begin CEO selection process
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The new city schools academic distress commission will meet today – about four months after its inaugural meeting originally was scheduled.
“I think it’s reasonable to say that at times, I questioned the fruitfulness of getting involved in this based on what’s happened over the last three months,” said Brian Benyo, commission chairman.
Ultimately, though, Ben-yo decided to stay the course, believing the effort to improve the schools is worth it.
The commission, created through the Youngstown Plan legislation approved by the state Legislature, will select a chief executive officer to manage and operate the city schools.
The commission is supposed to appoint a CEO within 60 days, and Benyo said one of the issues that’s expected to be discussed at today’s meeting is how the search will be conducted.
The meeting is set for 4 p.m. at Choffin Career & Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St.
Four of the five commission members were appointed last December, but selection of the fifth member led to litigation that wasn’t settled until Monday.
Brenda Kimble, the school board president, initially appointed Carol Staten, a distant cousin who was a substitute school administrator, to the panel.
The Youngstown Education Association, the teachers union, filed a lawsuit contending the appointment should go to an active classroom teacher. While the case was pending, judges ruled the commission wasn’t permitted to meet.
The Youngstown Plan calls for the school board president’s appointment to be a teacher employed by the school district.
Kimble had argued that Staten met the definition of a teacher, but a magistrate and Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and three judges at the 7th District Court of Appeals agreed with the teachers union.
On Monday, Kimble rescinded her appointment of Staten and appointed Vincent Shivers, a media-arts instructor at Choffin. In 2013, Shivers received a four-year alternative resident educator license to teach at the school.
Mayor John A. McNally selected Barbara Brothers, retired Youngstown State University dean, as his commission appointee.
Brothers said the lag between her appointment and the panel meeting didn’t discourage her from being part of the effort.
“I am committed to public education,” she said. “My sense of things is that everyone on the commission is equally so, and we should be able to work to strengthen things for the city schools. I don’t think anybody on the commission wants Youngstown to not have a school system.”
Richard Ross, former state superintendent of public instruction, appointed Benyo, president of Brilex Industries in the city, to the commission and the chairmanship.
Ross also appointed Laura Meeks, retired president of Eastern Gateway Community College, and Jennifer Roller, president of the Raymond John Wean Foundation, to the commission.